Sound like you may be having trouble with negative score hits early on.
The best way to counter that is to have higher score. Early on, some of the best way to get high scores each month is Research. Especially projects where you "get one free" like interrogations, discs, and books. Do your best to capture as many captives as possible. If you can get a ship up to down Civilian Traffic (Aircar with a weapon that you loot from a landed small), you can farm a lot of civilians. Research them repeatedly to have them tell you about weapons, countries, etc. Each time, you get the points from researching the person AND the points for the topic they tell you about. These 2-fers are great for high score. Handles, stun batons, and tazo guns are great for this. I often build a second prison in my first base early on, to hold the overflow of captives until I can make them talk. I'll even throw a third one in my second base as it can hold overflow or captives from missions run by the B-Team here.
Also, hire as many Brainers/Mad Scientists as you can support. They are expensive so you will need to get a good source of income to fund your enterprise. Extractors making flame arrows, then grog can help until you get workshops up. Once workshops are online, work on getting stills, so you can make a proper industrial brewing facility in a second base where you can have a couple hundred runts funding your enterprise.
